“My bandanna is rolled on the diagonal and retains water fairly well.”
Coming Into the Country by John McPhee
“On 20 May 2119 I took the overnight ferry from Port Marlborough and arrived in the late afternoon at the small quay near Maentwrog-under-Sea that serves the Bodleian Snowdonia Library.”
What We Can Know by Ian McEwan
“When the quiet knock came on the door, Robert Ashton surveyed the room in one swift, automatic movement.”
Tales of Time and Space, edited by Ross R. Olney (This is from “All the Time in the World” by Arthur C. Clarke)
“It was eight o’clock and pitch dark on a chilly October night.”
The Amish Wedding and Other Special Occasions of the Old Order Communities, by Stephen Scott
We all know that history has proceeded very differently for peoples from different parts of the globe.
Guns, Germs, and Steel, by Jared Diamond (reread)
“If that ain’t the damnedest thing.”
Ancient Shores, by Jack McDevitt
“Next to dinosaurs, woolly mammoths are probably the best known prehistoric animals.”
Ice Age Bones: Mammoth, by Barbara Hehner
“They would be watching the airport. Couldn’t go back there.”
Tool of the Trade by Joe Haldeman
“Palo Alto can be beguiling: the palm trees, the exquisite gardens with chromatic waves of tulips, hydrangeas, and roses, the extravagant explosions of bougainvillea, the voluptuous breeze on a sun-bright day, the the banks of fog rolling over the Santa Cruz Mountains that separate us from the beach to which we hardly ever go because the traffic is horrible.”
The Golden Ticket: A Life in the College Admissions Essays, by Irena Smith
“My wife and I had not eaten for nearly an hour.”
A Year Near Proxima Centauri, by Michael Martin
“the music! the
music! as when Casals struck
and held a deep cello tone
and I am speechless”
Untune the Sky: Poems of Music and the Dance, compiled by Helen Plotz (The quote is from “The Desert Music” by William Carlos Williams)
“The two men on the narrow dirt strip were both wearing white cotton pants and shirts.”
Money Money Money, by Ed McBain
“Travel is food for the soul.”
Why We Travel: 100 Reasons to See the World, by Patricia Schultz.
Bangalore, 2 April 1922
The moon appeared through the clouds, its pale silvery light shining through the open door, glistening onto the old iron box.
Into the Leopard’s Den, by Harini Nagendra
OK, it’s not the most glamorous start, and it takes a couple of chapters to pick up, but The Elements of Marie Curie: How the Glow of Radium Lit a Path for Women in Science is an excellent biography, from an author who understands the science well enough to do justice to her topic.
“The sophisticated cuisine that developed in the Iberian Peninsula when it was under Muslim rule is in full view in the thirteenth-century cookbook Fiḍālat al-khiwān fī ṭayyibāt al-ṭaʿām wa-l-alwān by the Andalusi scholar Ibn Razīn al-Tujībī.”
Nawal Nasrallah, Best of Delectable Foods and Dishes from al-Andalus and al-Maghrib: A Cookbook by Thirteenth-Century Andalusi Scholar Ibn Razīn al-Tujībī (1227–1293), English Translation with Introduction and Glossary
Plus enjoyable manuscript illustrations of the food, plants, cookware, etc. The introduction is 102 pages and fascinating.
Halla of Rutger’s Howe had just inherited a great deal of money and was therefore spending her evening trying to figure out how to kill herself.
Swordheart by T. Kingfisher
Roger Mulligan looked down at the dandelion, questioning his life choices.
“The Wizard’s Cat” - Nathan Lowell
I again suggest you take any commentary and discussion to the Whatcha Reading thread, the latest of which is here: Khadaji’s Whatcha Reading Thread - January 2026 edition. Thanks!
“The village children called him Mr. Gloomy. But, in fact, his name was Toomey, Mr. Jonathan Toomey.”
The Christmas Miracle of Jonathan Toomey by Susan Wojciechowski, illustr. by P. J. Lynch
“I could have become a mass murderer after I hacked my governor module, but then I realized I could access the combined feed of entertainment channels carried on the company satellites."
All Systems Red by Martha Wells
“I am prowling outside Mitch McConnell’s former frat house, which until fifteen minutes ago seemed like an excellent idea.”
Democracy in One Book or Less by David Litt
“Amahle could no longer remember how old she was.”
Light Chaser, a science fiction novel by Peter F. Hamilton and Gareth L. Powell
“I don’t want fast. I want pretty.” (Said by Billy Rose to Esther Williams.)
Swimming Pretty: The Untold Story of Women in the Water, by Vicki Valosik.
“When I was a girl and the world broke, I thought I would always divide my life by the night in the mountains – the day before, the day after.”
The Secrets of Jin-shei by Alma Alexander
“Sunshine is overrated.”
They Fear Not Men in the Woods by Gretchen McNeil
“According to legend, the first unethical science experiment in history was designed by none other than Cleopatra.”
The Icepick Surgeon by Sam Kean
On this day in December 1941, snow fell steadily upon a team of prisoners loading packages onto a handcart at Leipziger Station.
Monopoly X: How Top-Secret World War II Operations Used the Game of Monopoly to Help Allied POWs Escape, Conceal Spies, and Send Secret Codes, by Philip E Orbanes
“Bob Barnes says they got a dead body out on BLM land.”
The Cold Dish, by Craig Johnson
“In the early afternoon of November 29, 1983, the Los Angeles field office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation received a call from a Bank of America brand in the Melrose District.”
Revenge of the Tipping Point: Overstories, Superspreaders, and the Rise of Social Engineering, by Malcolm Gladwell
“Just one more stop and he could call it a day. Abel rang the bell.”
The End of the World As We Know It by Christopher Golden and Brian Keene
“If you had set out in the summer of 1660 to travel the four miles from Boston to Cambridge, Massachusetts, the first house you would have come to after crossing the Charles River would have been the Gookins’.”
– Act of Oblivion, by Robert Harris
“Marley was dead, to begin with.”
(I think you all know the book.)